Aurora Over a Dead World

Chapter 2: A Frustrating Truth

"Haa..." I walk through the city streets watching people go about their peaceful lives, completely oblivious to the horrors their "heroes" endure to keep that peace intact, and something about this placid scene honestly disgusts me.

My eyes, so used to destruction, death, viscera, and monsters, can’t handle this "pretty" picture very well. My mind always starts imagining a monster attacking these people, ripping their bodies apart, and that vision—frustratingly—calms me more than it should.

"Great. Ordinary people. Just what I needed... living with ordinary people." I feel the gazes of a few people on my body, on the prosthetics that now make up my limbs.

Ignoring those foolish stares, I sit down on a bench in a flower-filled park, my tail hitting the ground with a metallic thud. Even trying to keep calm, the restlessness that an attack could happen at any moment frustrates me, makes me wish something would attack just to prove to my brain that staying on high alert still makes sense.

I look down at the folder in my hands, trying to shift my focus. I need to read this soon so I can see which problem brats I’m going to be teaching.

But the moment I read it, it means I’ve accepted that Nadir screwed me over. That hypocrite really screwed me.

"..." I hear a bird chirp. Immediately, my hand points in that direction and I use my power. The bird is "torn" in half and blood sprays onto the plants below as its body falls. I glance around and, thankfully, no one saw.

’I-I need more calm... it’s not a monster in disguise... I’m in the city. If I attack everything that seems suspicious, I’ll end up killing a civilian... I don’t want to get arrested and have to wait for Nadir to bail me out...’

"Dammit... this quiet atmosphere gets on my nerves... and my head hurts just thinking about having to be a teacher... they should get the Kairas more suitable instructors, not me. I bet these brats have ridiculously strong powers... while all I have is this shitty power that could kill me..."

"Nephilim Axis — Kairas... I wonder what the world would even be without that organization." Nephilim Axis is the military, educational, governmental, and a whole bunch of other things organization that practically runs Aurora Island.

They’re practically everywhere, handling every human affair, and the Kairas are their weapons—women and men who can use their equipment, though the majority are women for compatibility reasons.

"That reminds me of when vectors were more unstable..." I hate humanity, even though I’m human. Humanity screwed itself over in the past, and now I’m all kinds of fucked because of it.

Vectors. Vectors are what govern everything in the universe, and humanity, trying to play god 140 years ago, screwed it all up. It’s their fault the fear monsters appeared.

How are monsters born? It’s a common question kids might ask, but now there’s an answer humanity wishes it had never discovered.

Monsters are born from humanity’s collective fear. After the research into vector control, humans touched something they never should have, and because of that, monsters began appearing in the world, personifying humanity’s fears. The monsters’ sole objective is to destroy humanity for violating the laws of nature and creation by messing with what they shouldn’t have.

Monsters are born from any and all of humanity’s collective fears, especially after humans messed with technologies they had no business touching. That makes them fundamentally the fault of human technology.

That fear took form, became its own existence, and started producing creatures made to destroy humanity.

The most frustrating detail is that humans use vector technology to fight these things. That generates more fear and instability, that fear strengthens new monsters, the monsters force humans to use even more technology, and it becomes an almost never-ending cycle.

So monsters aren’t just "beasts"—they’re human fear materialized into something real, and they can take different forms depending on the type of fear that spawned them. But what never changes is their desire to destroy humans.

"..." I look at the kids on the street passing by with their parents—kids who don’t even know where the power that protects them comes from. It makes me think about the whole thing.

Vector Cerebral Chip, the first form of vector power usage created 120 years ago. A chip implanted in the brain that afterward allowed the user free use of vector powers. But it was unstable, and the lack of limits meant the powers never had a "Pause." They could become self-destructive without a natural base limitation. So it was replaced after just a few generations.

’What an ironic weapon...’ In short, bombs. Bombs shoved into the brains of idiots like me who needed to fight to survive. Bombs that probably killed more Kairas than the monsters themselves, since so many died to this trash defective equipment.

After that came the Vector Weapon. The chip’s successor, created 70 years ago. A weapon with the same capacity as the chip. More stable, but it had its issues. Being an external object, it didn’t grant powers—it only allowed partial use of powers externally as long as the user had the weapon on their person. Still, because it was more stable, it was used for quite a long time.

’The coward’s weapon, of course...’ Or, in this case, the weapon of smart people who weren’t willing to put bombs in their heads to try and fight. Even if they were weaker. In a way, I don’t like those weapons. They’re a cheap copy of a power that could be a whole lot stronger.

And finally, there’s the Vector Axis Core. Humanity’s latest-generation invention, created 15 years ago. An extremely stable vector sphere implanted in the brain or the heart. Unlike the chip, which deteriorated and fused with the user’s body in an unstable way that could lead to death,

the core has a perfect fusion rate of 99%. It allows the use of vector powers in a much more stable way, with safety limits to prevent overload.

Both the chip and the core, once fused to the body, can no longer be removed, and both are powered by the user’s own body. So both generate relative mental strain if used excessively without rest.

"I wish so badly I had a core... so jealous... if I’d been born just a few years into the future, I wouldn’t be stuck relying on a chip..." I have this shitty, unstable chip in my brain. That’s why my powers, despite being strong, are so unstable that any use could kill me.

And unfortunately, the chip can’t be removed since it’s fused to the body, and you can’t use a chip and a core at the same time unless the person wants to die, since they destroy each other if they fuse in the same body.

"I bet my idiot students have all that stable, badass power to use, with no terrible costs... If I could curse the idiots who messed with vectors, I’d do it without a second thought!!" What was the point of humanity gaining the power to control vectors if the cost was our near-extinction?

If it meant having monsters roaming the world, people dying on all sides, and young people being used as weapons, then we didn’t need this "amazing" technological advancement that was so praised as "important."

And now the earth’s surface is a hellscape and the underground is even worse, to the point of needing to be divided into categories. Just thinking about how we now have to live like animals, hidden on an island that flies while we lose so much territory, pisses me off.

Underworld — The underground, the place with the highest concentration of living fear monsters. A true chaotic hell where the most dangerous monsters live.

Horizon — The world’s surface, a devastated place swarming with monsters. It’s impossible for humanity to live there because of all the monsters and destruction.

Aurora — The mother island, humanity’s last home. An immense flying island larger than a country, it slowly soars above the Horizonte constantly, and it’s the only place where humans still exist. Aurora is divided into 5 different cities where humans live and coexist.

And unfortunately, I now have to live in the city instead of going down to the Horizonte with Nadir. I wanted to be down there, and I’d rather be down there, fighting to conquer new things for us.

Even though a big chunk of the spoils goes to the organization, in the end, those spoils are what allowed Nadir and me to survive, to have authority, and to have some minimal stability. Not to mention, it could help us figure out this strange mystery of why Nadir and I became two separate beings.

We don’t really know why we split apart, so it would be nice to discover the cause.

’Honestly... it’s so ridiculous for them to use a veteran as just a tutor... Nadir really pulled some strings to get me out of my position when I was so helpful...’ I know what these problems are about. Let’s just say these students aren’t actual teenagers—most of them are going to be 18 and older.

And without a doubt, if they need someone like me, it means they either killed civilians, killed other Kairas, or they’re disobedient troublemakers who don’t follow the rules. There’s also the possibility they can’t control their powers well under stress and pose a risk to the civilians we’re supposed to protect.

So, to me, they’re not students. They’re defective weapons that could kill me, and with my unstable power, I might have trouble handling them.

"I hope I don’t have any bomb students... what kind of shitty retirement is this where I have to look after students who could kill me!?" It would be ridiculous to die to some stupid brats and not a monster—to survive years in the war and be killed by someone who barely took part in it. It’s genuinely humiliating.